A Short History of Japan Podcast

Cameron Foster
  • 4.5 (145)
  • HISTORY
A Short History of Japan Podcast

This history of Japan focuses on the people, power plays and betrayals - and the occasional stuff-ups that shaped Japan. For fans of history, fans of Japan or tourists about to go for a visit - I hope you'll be entertained and informed!

  1. 04/24/2016

    Episode 35 OMG Part 2

    "How did it come to this?" - This must have been the question the Christian missionaries asked themselves as Hideyoshi followed by successive Tokugawa Shoguns made life unbearable for Christians in Japan.  If only we had handed over the ship...if only we'd handed over the treasure.....if only we had that Englishman beheaded..... It would be hard to find a group of Japanese more oppressed than the Christians.  But why were they especially targeted?   What threat did they represent?

    41 min

  2. 10/09/2014

    Episode 34: OMG Part 1

    To Christian missionaries, Japan was a most attractive prospect. Literate, cultured and rich - the Jesuits arrived in Japan in the 1500s and set about a process of conversion: from the lowest peasant to the highest warlord.  In Part One, we chart the rise and rise of Christianity under Nobunaga and Hideyoshi - before things turned sour.

    32 min

  3. 04/22/2014

    Episode 32: Masterful Inactivity

    With the destruction of the Toyotomi at Osaka in 1615, the Tokugawa clan were unrivalled in their domination of Japan.  They would establish a Shogunate that would last over 200 years.  But how did they change Japan from a nation perpetually at war to one of enforced peace?

    35 min

  4. 01/29/2013

    Episode 31: End of the Sengoku Jidai

    The Siege of Osaka Castle in the winter of 1614-15 and the final Battle for Osaka Castle in the summer of 1615 marks the final chapter in the Sengoku Jidai. After years of rivalry between the forces of the Toyotomi and the Tokugawa the final question of who would dominate Japan for the next few hundred years was decided - but not before conspiracy, cowardice, spanked bottoms and cross dressing was tried as a winning strategy!  Here is a map of the events discussed in the podcast.

    32 min

  5. 11/11/2012

    Episode 30: For Whom The Bell Tolls

    Tokugawa Ieyasu had won the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and set up organising Japan under his clan’s domination.  However, safely ensconced in Osaka Castle was Hideyori, son of Hideyoshi; the last of the Toyotomi.  Tokugawa Ieyasu knew that he would never be safe until the last of the Toyotomi claims to control of Japan were snuffed out.

    30 min

  6. 11/11/2012

    Competition Draw

    And the winner is of the Size-L Oda Nobunaga t-shirt - complete with his slogan “Tenka Fubu” (The Realm Subjected to Military Power) is……………………

    2 min

  7. 10/16/2012

    Episode 29: My Trip to Japan

    I went to Japan with 25 students and 2 other teachers.  In this podcast I’ll tell you where we went with a particular emphasis on the historical dimension (obviously!) and *drum roll* I bought you a present!!  Well, there is a competition and a prize!  Here is the map of the places we went and a link to a sliderocket presentation with some pics too!

    42 min

  8. 09/10/2012

    Episode 28: Sekigahara

    With Hideyoshi’s body barely cold, the plotting and scheming began in earnest.  This was the complete opposite of what Hideyoshi had hoped and begged for - for the sake of his infant son.  But promises to a dead man counted for little when the domination of Japan was in the offing.  Here is a google map with a few locations of the places mentioned in this cast

    31 min
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4.5
out of 5
145 Ratings

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This history of Japan focuses on the people, power plays and betrayals - and the occasional stuff-ups that shaped Japan. For fans of history, fans of Japan or tourists about to go for a visit - I hope you'll be entertained and informed!

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